Baltimore (TFN): Believe it or not, I used to be a fishing guide. And a darn good one, too. It feels like a past life these days, but some of the memories of my summers spent in Alaska’s pristine wilderness come streaking back to me at the oddest of times.

If you want to do well in today’s market, ignore this rally. Pay all your attention instead to the only class of companies you need to know about. I call these companies the “best of breed.”  They’re probably the least-talked about companies in the market. Many investors are missing the boat. And that’s a shame.

Hedge fund legend Julian Robertson is betting the farm against long-dated US Treasurys. As Notes readers will be aware, we have been banging the drum on the vulnerability of long-dated US debt for over a month now. But Robertson, of Tiger Management fame, has a different way to make this short long-term Treasurys play (hat tip Market Folly).

Vice President Joe Biden may also have some difficult questions to answer, according to John Hempton who blogs at Bronte Capital.

Ask investing icon Jim Rogers about the $700 billion U.S. banking bailout, and he’ll tell you that it’s nothing but “horrible economics.”  And with good reason: Most of the major U.S. banks are already bankrupt.

In the currency market, the dollar stabilized against the euro after it pared back early losses that pushed the exchange rate past $1.43. Late Monday, the euro was trading at $1.4013 vs. $1.4065 on Friday.  As with other markets, the eyes of traders were on the deteriorating situation in the Middle East.

It was a schizophrenic day for gold and silver, which could do little right during regular trading but couldn’t be stopped in the after hours action.

The typhoon of commentary that’s blown around the world a step behind the financial tsunami that’s wrecking everything, two little words have been curiously absent: “fraud” and “swindle.” But aren’t they really at the core of what has happened? Wall Street took the whole world “for a ride” and now a handful of Wall Street’s erstwhile princelings have shifted ceremoniously into U.S. Government service to “fix” the problem with a “toolbox” containing a notional two trillion dollars.

China’s long-term prospects are so strong that even a civil war, an economic collapse or political assassinations would only temporarily delay its emergence as a worldwide economic powerhouse.

George Soros first made a name for himself with The Quantum Fund, a hedge fund that’s often described as the first real global investment fund, which he and partner Jim Rogers founded in 1970.